Xiao Taos Geistergeschichten (Vollversion)

Kapitel 3

The singing, mingled with the sounds of string and wind instruments, was sometimes melodious and sometimes gentle, filling the lazy, stagnant afternoon. Tao Rujiu couldn't understand the lyrics, but he had only heard the melody once that morning.

"The Soap Robe"

Kunqu Opera...

Tao Rujiu listened intently, forgetting his fatigue. He followed the sound and stopped in front of an open door.

The plaque above the door reads three characters: Cuiying Pavilion.

Although described as a pavilion, it is actually a fairly large-scale antique-style residence. From the outside, it appears to have two or three courtyards. The outer hall has been converted into a shop selling iced drinks and snacks. Tao Rujiu walked in, and the first courtyard was surrounded by two-story corridors that connected the four cardinal directions, forming the shape of a swallow's nest.

A stage stands suspended in mid-air on the open ground in the center. The melodious Kunqu opera singing comes from the stage.

Tao Rujiu didn't understand Kunqu Opera, so he couldn't say what was being performed. He just guessed it was "The Peony Pavilion" based on the tune of "Zao Luo Pao". As for the two young ladies and maids, he mistakenly remembered them as Cui Yingying and Hong Niang.

The performance on stage was so captivating that he stood by the pillar, lost in thought. Because of the performance, there were a few audience members in twos and threes at Cuiying Pavilion, most of whom seemed to be local farmers who usually helped take care of the vegetables and fruits grown by the staff. The park management tacitly allowed them to come and go freely.

Tao Rujiu stood there for about fourteen or fifteen minutes before he came to his senses after the play was over.

The actors went behind the stage into the red silk cloth hanging there, and the people around them also stood up, indicating that all the performances had ended.

Tao Rujiu was just about to ask someone about the situation of his luggage when he saw Ling Li walking over from the back courtyard, followed by a young man.

The boy appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, with slightly dark skin but remarkably delicate features. His eyebrows were finely shaped, and his eyes bright; at first glance, he looked like a young girl. Unlike Ling Li's seemingly casual yet meticulously crafted attire, the boy wore faded jeans and a yellowed shirt. His slightly long hair was carefully parted and combed in two sections—a rare sight in the brisk sea breeze of Xiyao. Aside from the two female performers still removing their makeup, everyone else, all men, went into the courtyard and greeted Ling Li in varying voices. Only the boy behind Ling Li remained completely silent throughout.

Ling Li also saw Tao Rujiu.

"Reporter Tao, what are your thoughts after touring Hailing City?"

“It’s very big,” Tao Rujiu answered truthfully. “We’ve only skimmed the surface of it so far; there are still three or four sections we haven’t seen yet.”

Ling Li nodded sharply and said to the crowd:

"This is reporter Tao. He will be staying here with you for a while. Mr. Lü, thank you for your help."

An elderly man, well past sixty, emerged from the crowd. Half of his hair was gray, but he stood tall and was in excellent spirits. Tao Rujiu thought to himself that this must be the troupe leader.

"Hello, Teacher Lü."

"Good boy."

The old man was quite kind. At this moment, two other actresses who had removed their makeup also walked into the courtyard. Surprisingly, they were also men.

In ancient times, traditional performing arts were all performed by men, but in modern times, the gender composition of Peking Opera performers has undergone a qualitative change. Now, seeing an all-male cast, Tao Rujiu feels quite uncomfortable.

Master Lü had everyone give a brief introduction. This opera troupe had been there since the park was built, and the members were recruited from all over F province; none of them had much money.

"This is the erhu player in the troupe. His surname is Qin and his given name is Huakai. We usually call him Huakai."

Master Lü was referring to that handsome young man.

"Huakai is the youngest one here. She got sick in 1998 and ruined her voice, so she can't speak anymore."

"So he's mute," Tao Rujiu thought with some regret, while smiling at the boy and reaching out to gesture something.

"Flowers cannot speak, but they can hear."

A sharp, cold remark was made. At the same time, the young man returned Tao Rujiu's smile.

Tao Rujiu blushed.

"Then it's settled."

Ling Li glanced at his watch and suggested returning to the city. The expansion project of Xiyao Bay had to be finalized by the end of the month, and all on-site investigations needed to be completed before the first typhoon of the year, a prospect that was far from optimistic.

His colleagues escorted him to the back door, where a car was already waiting.

"If you change your mind now, I can take you back to the city."

Before leaving, Ling Li gave Tao Rujiu one last chance.

"Thank you, Mr. Ling. I do think there are indeed things in Hailing City that are worth reporting on."

The long journey at noon had given Tao Rujiu a new inspiration, and the sharp, almost contemptuous tone made him secretly determined not to grant the other party's wish.

"Whatever you say. I'll come back in five days, and I hope to see you then."

Ling Li got into the car, and the rest of the opera troupe stopped at the back door to see him off, but Qin Huakai got into the electric cart with Ling Li. According to Master Lü, the boy was very grateful for President Ling's care for him, a disabled person, and that he would always take him to the square before returning.

Cuiying Pavilion was originally a large house with three courtyards. It had electricity but no water pipes. The opera troupe used well water from the second courtyard. Although Hailing is shaped like an island, the earth's veins are still connected to the mainland. It is said that the location of that well has been a freshwater pool since ancient times.

Master Lü arranged Tao Rujiu's house on the east side of the third courtyard, behind which was the garden and Xueyin. According to Master Lü, this was the most auspicious place for newlyweds to live.

The room was also decorated in an antique style, appearing to be a side room with tables and chairs, a four-sided bed with bedding and a mosquito net, a display shelf against the wall, a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and an electric fan on the table. The air was filled with the smell of wax, and there were still a few cloudy white wax marks on the display shelf and the table, indicating that the props used for display had just been taken away in preparation for Tao Rujiu's arrival.

Tao Rujiu unpacked his luggage, displaying what needed to be displayed and hiding what needed to be hidden. The door was fitted with an antique-style Guang lock. Tao Rujiu didn't expect it to protect anything for him. He found a hidden socket under the bed, plugged in his laptop to charge, and then checked the phone signal.

It was full when it was in the Thousand Buddha Zone, but now even the shortest bar is gone.

After tidying up and resting for about an hour, Xiao Li, who played the role of a female impersonator, knocked on the door, saying that Master Lü wanted to explain the schedule. Tao Rujiu immediately grabbed paper and pen and followed him.

The opera troupe maintains a strict daily routine, undeterred by their secluded island location. They wake up at 5 a.m. to practice their voices, have breakfast at 7:30 a.m., and begin their performance at 9 a.m. Lunch is at noon, followed by the second performance at 1 p.m. Dinner is at 5 p.m. In the summer, there were originally evening programs starting at 7 p.m., but these were cancelled after the park discontinued its night tours.

Chapter 006

At five o'clock, music from a tour bus drifted from the back gate. Xiao Chen, who had just given Tao Rujiu a ride, and another tour guide arrived to pick up the opera troupe for lunch. The restaurant was located in the southeast corner of the Imperial City; what was originally a side hall courtyard had been converted into a canteen that could accommodate all the park's staff. Tao Rujiu and the opera troupe sat by the east-facing window. The ceiling fan on the high beams offered little relief from the heat; only the draft passing through the doorway managed to dredge away some of their sweat.

Tao Rujiu and Xiao Li had become quite familiar with each other, and when everyone was seated, Hua Kai finally came in from outside. Xiao Li had already gotten his food, so he invited him to sit down.

The boy received his meal, sat down next to Xiao Li, and nodded to Tao Rujiu.

Dinner was a large pot of rice, with fish, meat cakes, steamed eggs, and winter melon soup. Tao Rujiu ate while observing his surroundings.

The main hall, which can accommodate two to three hundred people, only had about fifty people sitting in it. Some people even just grabbed their food and left. Xiao Li told Tao Rujiu that there were no night tours planned in the park, and most of the employees took the shuttle bus back to the city after dinner.

Because it was summer, night fell late, and the west side was still ablaze with heat after dinner. As members of the opera troupe who stayed in the park, they had a custom at dusk in the summer: every day, they would take turns sending two people to the melon patch in the northwest corner of the park to pick four watermelons, freeze them in the well water, and then take them out to eat when everyone was cooling off in the evening.

Today was Xiao Li and Hua Kai's turn to pick melons, and Tao Rujiu thought for a moment and volunteered to go with them to check on the melon patch.

"Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure..."

Xiao Li repeated it three times in one breath; singing the role of a female impersonator for so long did seem to have some effect on his personality. It wasn't until Brother Zheng from Si Qinglong grabbed him by the neck that he finally stopped.

"It seems our reporter Tao didn't visit the underground palace area during the day."

Master Lü's words won unanimous approval from everyone.

"But I think I know what kind of place it is."

Tao Rujiu defended himself in this way.

The route we took in the morning was indeed opposite to the direction of the underground palace, but we could still guess some of what was inside from the expressions of the tourists and children.

It's nothing more than a haunted house designed to scare people.

He still insisted on going together. After all, Xiao Li was about the same age as him, and Hua Kai was even younger. If neither of them was afraid, then he had even less reason to be scared.

Seeing that Tao Rujiu insisted, the others stopped trying to dissuade him, except that Zheng Qinglong also said he wanted to go along. So the group said goodbye to Master Lü and the others at the foot of the imperial city and headed towards the underground palace area.

As evening fell, a cool breeze blew through the empty scenic area. People's slippers crunched on the fine sand blown by the wind, as if they were out enjoying the cool air.

When the group arrived at the entrance of the underground palace, a sliver of the setting sun still lingered on the horizon. Unlike the other open areas, the underground palace was surrounded by walls. The entrance resembled a typical mountain gate, with the metal railings of the ticket checkpoint secured by chains. Behind the gate was a small pavilion, lit by a single lamp, where an old gatekeeper lived.

Xiao Li took the lead, singing a few lines of lyrics towards the pavilion as a greeting, before stepping through the ticket gate first. Following behind were Tao Rujiu, Hua Kai, and Brother Zheng. The old man's house was quiet, seemingly accustomed to the visits of these young people every summer night.

Behind the main gate is a screen wall with warnings and reminders painted on it. It generally states that people with coronary heart disease or mental disorders are not allowed to enter. The screen wall faces the main gate directly and is clearly visible from the outside. Seemingly to emphasize the horror inside, there are many blood-red handprints painted on the screen wall.

"We're about to enter the park!"

Xiao Li turned around and smiled. The slanting rays of the setting sun shone on his face, which looked rather eerie.

Behind the screen wall is a large grassy slope, with two paths branching off to the left and right, and a road sign in the middle.

Left: Netherworld Palace; Right: Corpse Soul Town.

Tao Rujiu remembers that in the early 1990s, Hong Kong cinema produced a lot of action zombie movies, one of which was called "Zombie Town".

"That's right, the movie was filmed here, but we don't usually take this route."

Brother Zheng had Tao Rujiu walk to the center of the group, with Xiao Li at the very front, and him and Hua Kai bringing up the rear.

"After passing Corpse Soul Town, there's Ghost Road, Reincarnation Street, Nine Coffin Forest, and Soul-Losing Slope, which is quite far. To get from the garden to the melon field, we usually go through the underground palace, which only takes twenty minutes."

As they talked, the four of them walked onto the left-hand path.

Compared to the other areas, the area around the underground palace resembles a barren, rural slope. It's filled with tangled bushes and shrubs. The gravel path slopes slightly downwards, gradually sinking into the ground, while the land on either side rises relative to each other, forming earthen walls.

Tao Rujiu noticed that the earthen walls on either side reflected a faint glow in the setting sun. He reached out and touched them, discovering that they were made of plexiglass. Just as he was wondering why they were arranged this way, his eyes, pressed close to the wall, came into contact with something in the soil.

It's a skeleton.

Embedded in the yellowish-brown soil, the skulls, like reliefs, were neatly stacked into a wall, starting from his feet. At Tao Rujiu's eye level were two white spheres, about the size of ping-pong balls, embedded in the eye sockets of the skulls, each with a small hole the size of a coin in the center. The young man stared blankly for a while before realizing they were dried-up eyeballs.

I've seen cooked fish eyes have a hard shell before, but I never imagined that human eyes would have one too.

So lifelike, it couldn't possibly be real human bones, could it? Thinking of this, Tao Rujiu couldn't help but shudder.

"That was inspired by the Tibetan Skull Wall, and Mr. Ling had it replicated based on a photo."

Zheng Qinglong explained later.

"They are all plaster models, but I heard that some of them are filled with things from abandoned graves."

Tao Rujiu nodded, looking at the mottled earthen wall. Some skulls even had their eyebrows and lips painted in black and vermilion, exuding an eerie atmosphere amidst the absurdity. The four of them walked in the tunnel, which was less than two meters wide, and before they knew it, their heads were covered by the dome of yellow earth.

Xiao Li and Hua Kai each took out a flashlight. In the pale yellow light, the vermilion gate of the underground palace was wide open, and the ground had changed from pebbles to blue bricks. Although it was hot and humid outside, once they entered the underground palace, a chill seeped from the soil and hit them.

The wall illuminated by the light features a cross-sectional view of the underground palace. From the top, it appears that the palace is divided into three levels to differentiate between visitors based on their age.

The basement level is an all-ages area, decorated with classic scenes of the underworld such as the Hall of Yama, the Mountain of Knives, the Sea of Fire, and the Bridge of Helplessness. Wax figures in ancient costumes are placed there, and when open to the public, they are illuminated with blue and red lights and accompanied by faint sound effects, truly creating a sense of the underworld. However, the park is currently closed, and everything in the underground palace is swallowed by darkness. The dark shadows of those wax figures standing in the corners add to the eerie atmosphere.

However, these are not considered particularly terrifying for adult men.

As Xiao Li picked up some trash left behind by tourists and threw it into the trash can, he said:

"We need to walk a bit on this floor, then go down to the second floor and exit through the work door on the north side. Outside is the melon field."

Tao Rujiu said "Oh" and brushed past the wax figure of the horse-faced man holding a steel fork.

The stale air was thick with the smells of wax and plastic fibers, and large pieces of reinforced glass were embedded in the ground in several places, making it easy to see eyes peering up from below. They were, of course, made of wax. "This place doesn't seem too scary."

Tao Rujiu honestly expressed his inner feelings.

“When I lived in the dorms, there were wild graves on the hill behind the dormitory, so we would get up in the middle of the night to test our courage. Oh, right…”

He turned to ask Hua Kai:

"Will the flowers bloom when you're in high school?"